D. B. Cooper

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D. B. Cooper : biography

L.D. Cooper, a leather worker and Korean War veteran, was proposed as a suspect in July 2011 by his niece, Marla Cooper.Provano, Joel (August 3, 2011): Woman claims D.B. Cooper was her uncle. Retrieved August 3, 2011. As an 8-year-old, she recalled Cooper and another uncle planning something "very mischievous", involving the use of "expensive walkie-talkies", at her grandmother’s house in Sisters, Oregon, south of Portland. The next day flight 305 was hijacked; and though the uncles ostensibly were turkey hunting, L.D. Cooper came home wearing a bloody shirt—the result, he said, of an auto accident. Later, she said, her parents came to believe that L.D. Cooper was the hijacker. She also recalled that her uncle, who died in 1999, was obsessed with the Canadian comic book hero Dan Cooper (see Theories and conjectures), and "had one of his comic books thumbtacked to his wall"—although he was not a skydiver or paratrooper.Thomas, P and Cloherty, J (August 3, 2011): "D.B. Cooper Exclusive: Did Niece Provide Key Evidence?" Retrieved August 3, 2011.

In August New York magazine published an alternative witness sketch, reportedly based on a description by Flight 305 eyewitness Robert Gregory, depicting horn-rimmed sunglasses, a "russet"-colored suit jacket with wide lapels, and marcelled hair. The article notes that L.D. Cooper had wavy hair that looked marcelled (as did Duane Weber).

On August 3 the FBI announced that no fingerprints had been found on a guitar strap made by L.D. Cooper. One week later they added that his DNA did not match the partial DNA profile obtained from the hijacker’s tie, but acknowledged, once again, that there is no certainty that the hijacker was the source of the organic material obtained from the tie. "The tie had two small DNA samples, and one large sample lifted off in 2000–2001," said Special Agent Fred Gutt. "It’s difficult to draw firm conclusions from these samples."Cloherty, Jack (August 9, 2011): D.B. Cooper DNA Results: "Not A Match". Retrieved August 9, 2011 The Bureau has made no further public comment.

Investigation

Aboard the airliner FBI agents recovered 66 unidentified latent fingerprints, Cooper’s black clip-on tie and mother of pearl tie clip, and two of the four parachutes, one of which had been opened and two shroud lines cut from its canopy. Eyewitnesses in Portland, Seattle, and Reno, and all individuals who personally interacted with Cooper were interviewed. A series of composite sketches was developed., from , also see the actual F.B.I. poster.

Local police and FBI agents immediately began questioning possible suspects. One of the first was an Oregon man with a minor police record named D. B. Cooper, contacted by Portland police on the off-chance that the hijacker had used his real name, or the same alias in a previous crime. His involvement was quickly ruled out; but an inexperienced wire service reporter (Clyde Jabin of UPI by most accounts,Guzman, Monica (November 27, 2007). Update: Everyone wants a piece of the D. B. Cooper legend. Retrieved February 25, 2011. Joe Frazier of AP by others), rushing to meet an imminent deadline, confused the eliminated suspect’s name with the pseudonym used by the hijacker. The mistake was picked up and repeated by numerous other media sources, and the moniker "D. B. Cooper" became lodged in the public’s collective memory.

A precise search area was difficult to define, as even small differences in estimates of the aircraft’s speed, or the environmental conditions along the flight path (which varied significantly by location and altitude), changed Cooper’s projected landing point considerably. An important variable was the length of time he remained in free fall before pulling his rip cord—if indeed he succeeded in opening a parachute at all. Neither of the Air Force fighter pilots saw anything exit the airliner, either visually or on radar, nor did they see a parachute open; but at night, with extremely limited visibility and cloud cover obscuring any ground lighting below, an airborne human figure clad entirely in black clothing could easily have gone undetected. The T-33 pilots never made visual contact with the 727 at all.